The last weeks of the rainy season in Costa Rica are perhaps the worst, not only for the amount of rainfall, but the accumulation of water in the ground which can lead to landslides and tragedies.
Currently there are seven areas in the south side of the greater area of San José under surveillance by the CNE: Tapezco an Chitaría in Santa Ana; Burío in Aserrí; Tablazo in Desamparados; La Cascabela in Alajuelita; Pacacua in Mora; and Lajas de Escazú.
The alert is to advise the public of the danger, especially to those living in high-risk condition, to be vigilant and have a family emergency plan in place.
The CNE is also asking the population to abide to the recommendations of the response bodies of their localities.
The commission permanently monitors high-risk areas by air and ground with the support of loal municipalisites and emergency response authorities, like the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) and the Bomberos (fire department), among others.
For now there are no emergencies reported. The large land masses under surveillance are characterized as unstable consisting of slightly cohesive soil and rock.
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica by Jason Holland, InternationalLiving.com
This article is courtesy of InternationalLiving.com, the world’s leading authority on how to live, work, invest, travel, and retire better overseas.
When he was 35, Colin Brownlee had an epiphany — a life-changing moment. He was staying at a small hotel on the beach, on Hawaii’s Big Island. The landscaping was lush and tropical, there were hammocks slung between palm trees.
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica by Jason Holland, InternationalLiving.com
It was a homey place that guests raved about when they got home and came back to year after year. Colin knew that one day he had to open his own hotel just like it. At home in Vancouver and back in his advertising job he dreamt about the hotel he would open.
“It haunted me that I might not do it because of fear of failure,” says Colin. “When I turned 40, I didn’t want the second half of my life to be all about the money, so I started planning seriously.”
The plans paid off and today you’ll find Colin, now 51, at the Banana Azul, his beachfront hotel on Playa Negra, just north of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast. After six years, he couldn’t be happier.
“As I get older, I have amazing gratitude,” explains Colin. “If I could be anywhere in the world, doing anything I wanted, if money was no object, I would be here.”
When searching for a spot for his hotel from his home in Canada, Colin looked worldwide. “My idea was first born in 1996,” says Colin. “From that point on, I did a lot of research and things kept pointing to Costa Rica mainly because of its location, beauty, stability, and easy access to North America.”
He found Puerto Viejo on the Internet and first visited in 2003. “I saw it had a funky bohemian atmosphere. I like living in those types of places. When I came to check it out, it exceeded my expectations,” says Colin. “Then I went all over Costa Rica, as well as Granada, Nicaragua. Samara on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula was a runner-up. I chose the Caribbean side because I felt it was very up and coming and had diverse culture.”
Costa Rica’s great weather, lush green landscape, and accepting attitude sealed the deal. So he made an offer on the land in 2004 — it was cow pasture at the time — and built his hotel from the ground up starting the next year. He drew up the plans himself after rejecting his architect’s designs and supervised the work.
It’s a two-story structure, wood paneled, with a large covered area on the first floor that houses a bar and restaurant. He invested about $600,000 in the initial construction, which took two years. Tropical landscaping surrounds the pool and runs all the way up to the beach.
“When the construction crew showed up, my son said, ‘Dad, I didn’t know you knew how to build a hotel,'” recalls Colin. “‘I don’t,’ I told him. ‘Isn’t this fun?'” But Colin did give a lot of thought to how to make his hotel special. “And I had some experience in the hospitality industry. At the age of 18, I worked six months as a bellhop,” laughs Colin.
Banana Azul is a few minutes outside of town, which long-time hoteliers in the area told him was no good. But it’s a short bike ride to Puerto Viejo, and it’s a quiet neighborhood, the beach nearly deserted most of the time.
When he put out beach chairs and hammocks for his guests, the old-timers tut-tutted again –you should charge for those things, they said. Since day one, Colin has been focused on the guest experience.
“You have to ask yourself what will make people happy, not, ‘How can I make more money?'” says Colin. “We’re not renting rooms, we’re giving people experiences. That’s what they dream about: sitting on the beach with a cocktail, watching the water.”
And business is good. The Banana Azul, with 15 rooms, has 95% occupancy year-round, says Colin. Guests tend to stay for about a week — it’s an annual vacation for many. Rooms start at $89 a night for double occupancy, with suites going for $139 and up. He does most of his marketing online, through ads as well as staying active in forums and websites on the area. And he has embraced TripAdvisor, which has become a travelers’ Bible.
His 23 employees keep the place humming. But Colin isn’t content to sit back. He’s always improving. “Whatever you want, we’ll make it happen,” says Colin. “You have to tap into people’s emotions to give them what they want.”
And he genuinely enjoys his guests. Because Puerto Viejo is off the main tourist path in Costa Rica, he says they get the crème de la crème, like-minded people in tune with the low-key vibe at Banana Azul.
“We’ve only been open six-and-a-half years,” says Colin. “But we’ve had people back for their fifth visit.”
Colin is in it for the long haul. “I’m just not ready to retire. I’m not a do-nothing person,” says Colin. “I’m a big believer that you need a purpose in life. And right now my purpose is to give people fabulous vacations.”
And what better setting? “I can’t get over is sitting on the beach with a cappuccino… I’m really here,” says Colin.
“Child Grooming”, the deliberate action undertaken over the internet with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, is considered a crime in Costa Rica and punished with a sentence of up to fours years in prison.
In Costa Rica, since April 2013, the Criminal Code section 167bis, makes it an offence to seduce a child by electronic means. With penalties up to 4years of imprisonment for a person that, by any means attempt to establish an erotic or sexual communication with a child under 15 years old.
The crime involves communication with a sexual content, including images, video, text or audio, to seduce or lure a minor.
The law also sanctions anyone who uses the identity of a third party or a false identity to establish communication containing erotic content with the intent of an encounter with a minor.
According to Ministerio Público (Attorney General’s office), no data is available yet on how many complaints or cases for this cimre are in the process.
Some countries that have already criminalized grooming in their national legislation include Australia, Canada, United Kingdon, Netherlands, and the United States.
In its report Protection of Children Against Abuse Through New Technologies, the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Committee addressed the emerging issues of violence against children through the use of new technologies (the issue of child pornography on the Internet is already covered by Article 9 Convention) with particular reference to grooming both through the internet and by mobile telephones.
Victims
Sexual grooming of children over the internet is most prevalent (99% of cases) amongst the 13–17 age group, particularly the 13–14 years old children (48%). The majority of them are girls. The majority of the victimization occurs over the mobile phone support. Children and teenagers with behavioral issues such as higher attention seekers have a much higher risk than others.
The Global Gender Gap Index seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men, across a large set of countries and across the four key areas of health, education, economy and politics.
Costa Rica is the sixth best country in Latin America to be a woman and number 31 in the world, according to the report Global Gender Gap 2013, published today by the World Economic Forum .
Ahead of Costa Rica are Nicaragua, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Barbados.
This year the country dropped two places in the world rankings, and that in 2012 occupied the box 31.
The top 10 are: Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Philippines, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland and Nicaragua.
The eighth annual report ranks 136 countries according to their ability to close the gender gap in four key areas : health and survival, educational attainment, political participation, and economic equality.
Globally, in the area of economic participation, the Costa Rica ranks 98 start in education shares first place with eight other countries , while political empowerment has the number 21 health and got 62 .
For Costa Rica’s Ombudswoman, Ofelia Taitelbaum, the country has advanced in the last 20 years to reduce the gender gap , but there are still outstanding issues, mainly on the issue of wages.
U.S. Biologist Richard Whitten poses in front of a part of his insect collection on exhibit at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Whitten, who has lived in Costa Rica for over a decade, donated his collections of giant scorpions, tarantulas, grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles and other insects to the University of Costa Rica, where it is being exhibited this week. (AP Photo/Javier Cordoba)
U.S. Biologist Richard Whitten poses in front of a part of his insect collection on exhibit at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Whitten, who has lived in Costa Rica for over a decade, donated his collections of giant scorpions, tarantulas, grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles and other insects to the University of Costa Rica, where it is being exhibited this week. (AP Photo/Javier Cordoba)
(AP) A U.S. biologist has donated 4,000 insects he collected over 62 years to Costa Rica. Richard Whitten has donated his collections of giant scorpions, tarantulas, grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles and other insects to the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) – University of Costa Rica, where it is being exhibited this week.
Whitten, who has lived in Costa Rica for 16 years, said Friday he and his wife are moving back to the United States, where several universities wanted to house the insects.
Whitten says he decided to give the collection to the Costa Rican university because they promised to permanently exhibit it.
He says that leaving his collection behind “is like leaving my children.”
Collection curator and biology professor Ricardo Murillo calls the collection “invaluable.”
A Guanacaste woman is the first fatailty of dengue since 2010, this was confirmed by the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud) on Thursday.
Health officials say the lady died several weeks ago -though the news was made public yesterday – from internal bleeding caused by severe dengue.
Mary Ethel Trejos, director of Vigilancia de la Salud, said that of the 13 deaths suspected of being caused by dengue, one was confirmed yesterday, seven were discarded from any relation to dengue, two did have dengue at death but died of other causes and three are still under investigation.
In 2012 and 2011 there no deaths related to dengue.
Director Trejos did not reveal the age of the woman, nor the area in Guancaste where she lived.
Since the first case of dengue was detected in Costa Rica in 1993, 22 people have died from the virus. The year with the most dengue deaths was 2007, with eight deaths.
In week 42 (ending October 19), Health confirms 853 new patients, 113 less than the previous week.
So far his year, 43.825 people have been infected with the dengue virus, making 2013 the year with the most cases ever.
The Ministry of Health says it is working not to repeat history in 2014.
Since Costa Rica does not subscribe to Daylight Saving Time (DST) – the practice of advancing clocks during the lighter months so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less – there is always confusion when dealing with family members or business associates in North America and Europe, for example.
For many “nortes” (North American expats) living in Costa Rica they quickly forget the concept and the time difference. And for those that remember that there is a time difference, they mostly likely have to pause for a nano second to recall if its one or two hours forward or behind.
Add to he confusion the fact that some states (Hawaii, Arizona with exceptions, Midway Atoll, Wake Island & small region of Alaska) or parts of Canadian (much of Saskatchewan, small region of British Columbia, small region of Nunavut Territory, small region of Quebec, small region of Ontario) do not observe DST.
Then there is the Europe thing. For states that observe DST, their timetable for the start and end does not coincide with the North American timetable.
For 2013, DST in the United States and Canada began on March 10 and ends on November 3. In Europe, it began on March 31 and end this weekend, on Ocotber 27.
For 2014, the clocks move ahead in the United States and Canada on March 9 and fall back on November 2. While in Europe starts ion March 30 and back on October 26.
BLUE: DST is used. RED: DST has never been used.ORANGE: DST is no longer used
Daylight Saving Time
The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time. The modern idea of daylight saving was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson and it was first implemented by Germany and Austria-Hungary starting on 30 April 1916. Many countries have used it at various times since then. Much of the United States used DST in the 1950s and 1960s, and DST use expanded following the 1970s energy crisis. It has been widely used in North America and Europe since then.
The United Nations report, National Human Development Report 2013, reveals that one in three people in Costa Rica recognize having a gay or lesbian family member, while six in ten claim to have friends who are sexually diverse.
The report released on Thursday did no ask for sexual orientation because of existing social censure may have inhibited responses.
The report also indicates that 34% of the people in Costa Rica agree with open expressions of affection, such as kissing or hugging in public between people of the same sex.
The percentage grew when asked about same sex couples being legally bound (as in marriage), with 39% in favour.
Mock up of the streetcar running through San José. Photo: Incofer
Mock up of the streetcar running through San José. Photo: Incofer
In the coming weeks the government is expected to announced plans for a “Tren-Tram“, an intercity connection of the train and streetcar.
The fusion would see the proposed streetcar running along Paseo Colón and Avenida Segunda in San José, connecting with the train fort San José, Heredia, Cartago and Alajuela (still in the planning stage).
The proposal is by the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (INCOFER) – Costa Rica’s national railway system.
The plan includes replacing the diesel engines with electric, and the trolley cars with large capacity and able to move up to 100 km/h.
INCOFER president, Miguel Carabaguíaz, says the project is ready, what is needed is to finalize the financing and the approval by Presidenta Laura Chinchilla.
The overall objective is to move people over 80 kilometre of train track from the Basiclia in Cartago to Ciruelas, Alajuela, with 17 stops in between, in about an hour. The trip can take 90 minutes or more by car, up to three hours using the current bus/train system.
Carabaguíaz said that if approved the train-tram would be operational in about four years.
Opponents believe the proposal will create more traffic chaos in the capital city and place pedestrians at risk.
If you listen to the news in Spanish or know enough Spanish to read the Diario Extra you may have seen or heard the word “farándula.” Lafarándula” is the nightlife scene consisting of figures from business, sports, politics, modeling, entertainment and beautiful people. I guess you could say it is sort of like Costa Rica’s version of the “Jet Set.”
Those who participate in this strange social scene are called faranduleros. The verb farandulear means to hang out, make the scene or participate in one the activities where this clique gathers.
As I mentioned there are some local celebrities who make up this group but there is also a handful of social climbers and wannabes who want to make some contacts or rub shoulders with or get their picture taken with the local celebrities.
Most of the prominentfigures who attend the farádula’s events like the opening of a mall or new restaurant are only famous on a local level and nobody knows about them in other countries. They are kind of like “big fish in a little pond.” This whole phenomenon reminds me of something out of the TV show Keeping up with the Kardasians, which I would not waste my time watching.
The best place to see photos of the faráduleros is in the Friday edition of the Diario Extra newspaper. There is a section called Tía Zelmira where you read about all of the gossip (chismes), anecdotes, and activitiesof this group of socialites. There is even a gallery of photos on a page called Zelmirazos, where you can catch a glimpse of this cast of local characters participating in different events .
The description above of the farándula and how it operates is an example of one of the nuances of Costa Rican culture. I doubt that any retirees or expats hang out with this group of people but I think it is important to know what the farádula is and how it operates if you really want to learn about the country. By the way, my wife had a friend who was one of Costa Rica’s biggest models. She invited me to hang out with some of her faranduleros friends so I could make some connections. I politely thanked her and said that it was not something that would interest me. “Cada loco con su tema“…To each his own.
Gang and organized crime violence are the main reasons Central Americans seek refuge in other countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner’s Office for Refugees (UNHCR). Above, migrants use the train known as “The Beast” in Mexico to travel to the United States. (Courtesy of La 72 Refugee Home)
Infosurhoy.com – Gang violence and organized crime has taken over political instability as the main cause for Central Americans’ seeking refuge in other countries.
Gang and organized crime violence are the main reasons Central Americans seek refuge in other countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner’s Office for Refugees (UNHCR). Above, migrants use the train known as “The Beast” in Mexico to travel to the United States. (Courtesy of La 72 Refugee Home)
“[Since 2009], we have noticed a growing trend in the number of people from the Northern Tier of Central America requesting refugee status in Mexico, Canada and the United States,” said Fernando Protti, regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner’s Office for Refugees (UNHCR) for Central America, Cuba and Mexico.
The largest number of refuge applications in the region last year came from Salvadorans (1,620), Guatemalans (1,320) and Hondurans (765), according to UNHCR.
“Many [migrate] because they are persecuted by gangs and they don’t want to do business with gangs or be exploited by these groups,” Protti said. “In the case of young girls or youth, they don’t want to be the girlfriend of a gang leader.”
Of the 3,705 applications from Central America’s Northern Tier in 2012, the majority were sent to the United States (65%), followed by Canada (17%), Costa Rica (6%) and Mexico (5%).
“There is a mathematical relationship between the increase in violence and the homicide rate in these countries with the increase in people requesting refugee status,” Protti added.
Central America’s homicide rate is 41 per 100,000 residents, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Honduras has the highest rate with 85.5 per 100,000 residents. El Salvador registered 69.2 and Guatemala 38.5.
A homicide rate of five per 100,000 residents is considered “normal,” with nine homicides considered “high” and above 10 “epidemic,” according to the World Health Organization.
Between 2010 and 2012, the Ignacio Ellacuría Human Rights Institute (IDHIE) in the Mexican state of Puebla surveyed 1,000 women from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who passed through migrant shelters, determining that 70% fled their countries due to violence.
“[Many] women migrate with their sons ages 10 to 12 – mostly from Honduras and El Salvador – because [they fear] that they will be recruited by gangs,” said Irazú Gómez Vargas, head of the IDHIE’s Migration Affairs program. “We also have identified cases of young women being harassed by gang members, [whose parents] had decided to send them away from the country so that they do not fall into these networks.”
According to El Salvador’s National Civil Police (PNC), 1,409 cases of extortion – 83% by gangs – were reported during the first half of 2013.
Mexico has an annual migration flow –migrants who are passing through the country on their way to the United States and those who choose to settle in Mexican territory – between 150,000 and 300,000 people, according to UNHCR.
Of the 6,926 refugee claims the Mexican government received between 2002 and 2013, nearly 50% came from Central Americans.
From this number, only 1,616 received asylum, while another 84 received additional protection, meaning applicants won’t be returned to their country while their lives are threatened.
Last year, about 11,000 migrants were kidnapped by organized crime groups in Mexico, according to the CNDH.
Kidnapping, extortion, theft, and forced prostitution are some of the crimes suffered by migrants, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
However, there have been advances in the protection of migrants, according to Fernando Batista, fifth general visitor of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
A breakthrough is the Migration Act of January 2013, which provides for the regularization of humanitarian visas when a migrant’s life is at risk. It also calls for the non-criminalization of undocumented immigrants and secures legal representation for migrants.
Migrants
Pedro Acosta, a 22 year old originally from Yoro, which is 320 kilometers north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, arrived in Mexico in mid-2012.
Acosta’s family fled to Tegucigalpa after two of his brothers were killed by gang members for refusing to pay extortion fees, but a frightened Acosta soon left the country.
Extortion affects all levels of commerce in Honduras. A candy seller in a park has to pay $100 lempiras (US$4.89) per week to gangs, while store owners pay $5,000 lempiras (US$244) and bus drivers and owners of food stalls shell out $2,000 lempiras (US$97), according to Acosta.
“Gang members armed with guns make them pay, and if they don’t, they are shot. People are left unemployed and roam the streets stealing to feed their families any way they can,” Acosta added. “I saw no other reason to stay in Honduras because wherever you go, there are gangs charging a ‘war tax’ to anyone who works to make a decent living.”
Acosta made his way to the Mexican state of Tabasco, where he tried to hop a train heading north, along with dozens of other migrants. But he couldn’t secure a safe spot atop the train, causing him to fall to the tracks, where the train’s wheels severed his right leg.
Mexico granted Acosta a humanitarian visa last May, which allows him to work and study in the country.
He did not agree to refugee status because it would prevent him from returning to Honduras to visit his family.
Confiscated drugs by Costa Rica's drug enforcement police, the PCD. Photo: Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
Four out of five people detained by Costa Rica’s special police task force during the first nine months of 2013 were arrested for drug-related crimes, a sign of the growth of trafficking and the domestic drug market in the country.
Confiscated drugs by Costa Rica’s drug enforcement police, the PCD. Photo: Ministerio de Seguridad Pública
Of the 4,500 people arrested between January and September this year by the police’s Operation Support Group (GAO) — which intervenes in urban areas with high levels of violent and organized crime — more than 3,500 were detained for drug offences, reported CB24.
According to Costa Rica’s Minister of Security Mario Zamora, those crimes were a combination of drug trafficking, possession and consumption, reported La Nacion. Zamora said the majority of arrests were made in the provinces of San Jose, Limon, Alajuela, Cartago and Heredia, which include seven of the country’s ten largest cities.
La Nacion reported that during that time period, the GAO had seized tens of thousands of doses of marijuana, cocaine and cocaine derivatives.
The fact such a massive percentage of people arrested by the GAO were in some way involved in drugs points to the growing use of Costa Rica as a transit point and the growing domestic market that has followed this uptick.
The combination of expansive forested coastlines and a lack of a military make Costa Rica vulnerable to drug traffickers, who have been increasingly pushed south from Mexico by the government and rivals in recent years. Traffickers from elsewhere in the region have also been detained in the country, as have large drug shipments. An internal government report earlier this year highlighted the use of the country as a departure point for drugs headed to 39 countries on four continents.
All of these conditions lend themselves to a growing domestic market, which has increased violence. While Costa Rica remains one of the least violent countries in the region, according to the Organization of American States’ (OAS) 2012 Report on Citizen Security in the Americas, the homicide rate almost doubled between 2000 and 2010, and the rate of cocaine consumption in 2010 — the most recent figures available — was more than double that of Brazil, the world’s second largest domestic cocaine market after the United States.
This link between drug trafficking and domestic consumption has long been identified, and the growing importance of Costa Rica as a drug transit point and concomitant rise in violence and consumption has previously been noted by the country’s President Laura Chinchilla.
It appears that someone has taken an interest in the ranch called Los Chinos in the far northern part of this country. On Monday, a member of the Ministry of the Environment on routine inspection of deforested areas — Fausto Alfaro — found a third landing place for helicopters.
Alfaro said he has filed a complete report with the Ministry of Security and the OIJ investigative department. Last Monday police in Guacimo, Limon province, found a truck parked at a mechanics shop with a load of 27 barrels of Jet A-1 fuel like that used in helicopters.
The mysterious helipads began to turn up two weeks ago when police investigated one in which war-like arms were buried in a hidden cache, fuel barrels. It was 600 meters from two houses under construction. The second was 700 meters east of the first.
This third helipad was 600 meters from the entrance to the farm. Almost as an after thought, Alfaro and his crew found 5,000 square meters of stumps where trees had been cut for lumber, apparently illegally. The illegal logging is serious enough but the arms and presence of helicopters so close to the Nicaraguan border caught the attention of those who love a good mystery.
La Nacion also found that residents of the village of Patastillo de Cutris a little closer than seven kilometers from Los Chinos farm saw a green helicopter flying over the farm Monday. Others said they had only heard an aircraft engine.
In line with the discoveries, residents of a village, Coopevega, 17 kilometers from the farm reported a group of strangers who came to the village three months ago, bought 300,000 colones worth of supplies and building materials. Was that for the two houses discovered at the first helipad? Stay tuned.
The National Human Development Report 2003 of the United Nations reveals that 48% of Costa Rica’s 4.6 million population say they have been discriminated against at some point.
The major causes of discrimination were age, religion and sex, followed by skin colour, disability, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
The report “Informe Nacional sobre Desarrollo Humano 2013 del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo” – the National Human Development Report 2013 of the United Nations Program for Development (UNPD) – was released on Thursday.
The UNPD, located in San José, is the United Nations’ global network advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.
In Costa Rica, UNPD activities are mainly aimed at promoting sustainable human development, with a strong focus on achieving economic growth.
The UNPD is holding a presentation of the report tonight at 6:00pm in the atrium of the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium). Click here for your invitation.
The Human Development Index – going beyond income
Each year since 1990 the Human Development Report has published the Human Development Index (HDI) which was introduced as an alternative to conventional measures of national development, such as level of income and the rate of economic growth.
The HDI represents a push for a broader definition of well-being and provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human development: health, education and income. Between 1980 and 2012 Costa Rica’s HDI rose by 0.7% annually from 0.621 to 0.773 today, which gives the country a rank of 62 out of 187 countries with comparable data.
The HDI of Latin America and the Caribbean as a region increased from 0.574 in 1980 to 0.741 today, placing Costa Rica above the regional average.
The HDI trends tell an important story both at the national and regional level and highlight the very large gaps in well-being and life chances that continue to divide our interconnected world.
What is the most common baby name in Costa Rica? Valentina for a girl and Santiago for a boy, according to the Civil Registry (Registro Civil).
The Registro records indicate that between 2010 and the middle of 2013, 2.639 boys were named Santiago (can be translated to James in English), while 1.948 girls were named Valentina.
Other common names Tico parents give to their boy babies are: Sabastián, Mathias, Gabriel, Isaac and Samuel.
If a girl, the more common names are: Sofia, Isabella, Jimena an Camila.
There are no restrictions to people names
According to Luis Bolaños, head of registrations at the Civil Registry, in Costa Rica there is no rule that establishes a restriction on naming a person. However, Registry officials do counsel parents on the impact a particular name can have on a child.
Choosing a name for a baby is influenced by many factors. Some will take the name of a relative, or a home town. A national celebrity or international artist or sports personality.
The Registro notes that there are 82 girls in Costa Rica names Shakira, 95 are named Rihanna an 51 Thalías (Mexican singer, songwriter,).
There is one ‘Silvester Stallone’, two named ‘Rambo’ and one George Washington. Six boys are named Messi.
In trying to give their children an “English” name, parents with no knowledge of written English, will ‘spanglishize their baby name, like Jhon or Jhonny (John or Johnny) and Yaneth (Janeth).
Costa Rica's Coast Guard and Immigration officials help out the Ecuadorian fisherment rescued by the US Navy in Pacific watrs. Photo: La Nacion, Freddy Parrales
Six fishermen from Ecuador have the United States and Costa Rica to thank for their well being and getting home safely, when their fishing boat ran into foul weather in the Pacific.
Costa Rica’s Coast Guard and Immigration officials help out the Ecuadorian fisherment rescued by the US Navy in Pacific waters. Photo: La Nacion, Freddy Parrales
According to the U.S. Navy report, the guided-missile frigate USS Rentz (FFG 46) and embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) conducted a Safety-of-Life-at-Sea operation rescue October 20-21 for a fishing vessel, 200 nautical miles off the coast of Ecuador in distress and stranded for 10 days.
The US Navy report says that the Doña Tala and its six member crew was spotted early Sunday morning by Rentz’ forward lookouts. During the two-day rescue operation, LEDET personnel discovered that the vessel and six Ecuadorian nationals aboard had been struck by heavy weather, disorienting the crew and setting the small vessel 100 nautical miles off-course.
Adrift and out of fuel, the crew subsisted on bananas until Rentz arrived on scene and provided meals, ready-to-eat and approximately 120 gallons of diesel fuel; enough to return to home.
The crew aided by the U.S. ship, on Wednesday were taken to the Costa Rican port of Golfito, in the Southern zone. There, the fisherment were placed under the orders of Costa Rica’s immigration service (Dirección de Migración y Extranjería), transferring them to San José were they will be going home from in the coming days.
The survivors were identified as Jacinto Mora Chila, Luis Augusto Martínez Lazz, Eduardo Holguín Pico, Hernán Delgado Manzaba, Manuel Vicente Lemuz Chaves and Luis Yorqui Sornoza Toala.
According to Eduardo Holguín Pico, one of the fishermen, said they had sailed on Friday from the Ecuadorian port of Manta. However, he explained, strong waves, wind and rain impeded their ability to fish.
Another fisherman, Manuel Vicente Lemuz Chaves, said that at one point they were clinking to death, never expected to be rescued.
Costa Rica’s unions had proposed an increase of 3.96%. Labour Minister, Olman Segura, assures that the unions support the government decision, a balance of giving workers a beneficial increase without affective negatively the business sector.
The salary paid to a worker is up to the employer, but Costa Rica law establishes a minimum wage for all types of job categories and ensures that each employee receives the minimum pay at least.
n Cañas and Bagaces, AyA and the Ministry of Health have distributed these water filter systems.
n Cañas and Bagaces, AyA and the Ministry of Health have distributed these water filter systems.
By Cesar Blanco Fajardo for Vozdeguanacaste.com – The problem of arsenic in the aqueducts of Guanacaste and the northern zone of our country should be resolved no later than the month of May 2014. This was told to the Voice of Guanacaste by Dr. Luis Carlos Vargas, director of the water laboratory of the Costa Rican Institute of Water and Sewers (AyA).
In October, the Comptroller General of the Republic authorized AyA to conduct bidding to directly contract the design, supply, installation, commissioning, operation and technology transfer of seven arsenic removal systems for affected aqueducts.
However, this process was delayed. Vargas indicated that “at this time the bidding process is still going on, but there was a question from a company and it extended from the 15th to 25th of October so companies could turn in their offers. After the awarding of one or more contracts, the orders will be made on December 12, and within four months they will be working on the removal, which we hope will be completed no later than May.”
In June, the Constitutional Court gave AyA a period of six months to determine the causes of pollution, still unknown, and to provide drinking water in the affected areas. “We will comply with the mandate, but we were already working on it before this. We have a strong commitment to the population,” added Vargas.
The authorization of the comptroller was for an amount of 1 billion colones ($2 million) and will benefit the Guanacaste aqueducts of Montenegro-Agua Caliente of Bagaces, Falconiana of Bagaces, El Recreo-Quintas Don Miguel-Río Piedras and La Lobra of Bagaces and Bebedero of Cañas, as well as in the Alajuela aqueducts of ASA5-Vuelta de Kooper of Aguas Zarcas, Cristo Rey of Los Chiles and Santa Cecilia of Los Chiles.
Two More Cases Detected Vargas related that in recent days, two more aqueducts were found to have arsenic levels higher than the maximum of 10 micrograms per liter. These are located in Jabilla and Bagatzi of Cañas. “In Jabilla the concentration was 90 but it has lowered to 5, while in Bagatzi it is at 17 and for the time being we are supplying the people who live in these areas with potable water by tanker trucks while we study nearby springs,” the official assured.
According to Vargas, by September the institution had distributed 7.4 million liters of drinking water per month by the tankers, a house-to-house job. “This is an average of eight liters per person, and together with the Ministry of Health, we are working to install water tanks in schools,” he said.
“We don’t have all the expenses calculated, but in total we are going to invest a little more than 2 billion colones ($4 million). Seventy percent of the country’s problem has been resolved, and right now what needs to be corrected is the 30% reflected in these towns. We hope we can start as soon as possible and that there isn’t any appeal or another case either,” affirmed the engineer.
Finally, Vargas specified that in areas like Nicoya, Hojancha or Santa Cruz, existing data shows no arsenic in their water sources, and they have now conducted 3,800 analyses throughout Costa Rica, scanning 700 locations.
Drinking water contaminated with arsenic has been linked to the numerous cases of renal failure in the cantons of Cañas and Bagaces, but Dr. Roy Wong, who is investigating these cases for the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), assures that this cannot yet be confirmed.
For their part, the locals affirm that it has been part of this disease that has sent dozens of people to the grave, and they lay heavy blame on the agrochemicals used by agricultural companies in the area, such as sugar cane and rice companies.
With an overpopulation average of 40%, Costa Rica’s penitentiary system is overburdened and with no clear solutions in sight. The Ministerio de Justicia (the government agency overlooking the country’s prison system) is under pressure to lessen the overpopulation problem.
One jail that is grossly overpopulated is the preventive detention centre in the San Sebastian in San José, With some 1.247 prisoners, overpopulation is almost 80%.
For such, judge Roy Murillo, on September 24 ordered Adaptación Social one month to move out 370 prisoners from the San Sebastian.
The deadline expires today.
To comply with the court order, on Monday Adaptación Social began cleaning house. According to Manrique Sibaja, Director General de Adaptación Social, 240 prisoners have been moved out since Monday, with another 130 before next Monday.
Sibaja explained that the panorama is complex because all of the prisons in the country are under order to reduce overpopulation, on jugdes orders similar to the Murillo order.
San Sebastian is a holding centre for persons under preventive detention, that is awaiting trial and/or sentencing.
In his ruling, judge Murillo said that “overpopulation is unlawful and contrary to human dignity” and that if no other prisons can accommodate them, they should be released or relocated halfway houses.
Sibaja explained that in addition to prisoners being move to other jails, some are being released on condition of having a permanent address or employment and sleeping one or two nights at a half-way house.
Vehicle owners with license plates ending in “1” have to the end of the month (October 31) to make the mandatory change over to the “new” license plates. The changeover program is quarterly starting in July and ending in January 2016.
Editor’s note: The mandatory changeover is for a physical set of metal plates and not a number change. Vehicles will keep the same plate number that is for the life of the vehicle and can only be changed or passed on to another vehicle under special circumstances
The cost of a set of new license plates is ¢15.000 for vehicles and ¢8.000 for motorcycles.
The Natonal Registry (Registro Nacional) began a 30 month campaign to replace all the “old” metal license plates with the new that includes several security features against “cloning”. The new plates also come with a corresponding sticker that must be placed on the vehicle’s windshield.
The program also removes all the old dented plates and some with numbers that are barely legible.
Costa Ricans are renowned for waiting to the last minute for anything. So, it is not surprising that there will be a mad rush of the 34.792 vehicle owners that have not yet picked up their new license plates for this round.
This is the first mass change of vehicle license plates in two decades.
Besides the central offices in Zapote, the National Registry now has offices in Curridabat, Paseo Colón, Alajuela, Cuidad Quesada (San Carlos/La Fortuna), Limón, Perez Zeledon, Puntarenas and Liberia (Guanacaste).
The hours of customer attention at the central Registro Nacional in Zapote and Paseo Colón (San José) Monday to Friday is from 7:00 a.m. a 2:30 p.m.
Regional offices in Limón, Puntarenas, San Carlos and Alajuela are open Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. , Pérez Zeledón and Liberia Monday to Friday from 9:00 am a 4:00 p.m.
Telephone calls are taken from Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm 2221-0845
Next week, on November 1, the traffic police (Policia de Transito) will starting fining vehicles with the old plates ending “1”. The fine has yet to be announced.
Authorities in Costa Rica have called attention to the problem of illicit logging in the country, underlining the country’s significant role in the highly profitable global illegal timber trade.
According to Luis Martinez, coordinator of the Prosecutor’s Office on Agriculture and the Environment, the political and economic power of developers seeking to clear forest often allows them to “find a way” around tight regulations through falsified documents and corrupt officials, reported La Nacion.
In 2012 the National System of Conservation Areas (Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion- SINAC) received over 2,200 complaints about illegal logging, of which 610 were processed by the courts. During that time, the Statistics Section of the Judiciary reported making 1,100 complaints to the Public Prosecutor, resulting in just 26 convictions, reported La Nacion.
According to Gustavo Mata, deputy director of the Judicial Investigation Organization (Organismo de Investigación Judicial – OIJ), the logging is carried out by small groups with “a capacity to move around in the mountains that authorities don’t have.” Mata said these groups rely on a network of sawmills and transporters which process the lumber then feed it into the legitimate market.
Illegal logging continues in Costa Rica in the context of successful government policies to reforest the country, which have seen the country’s forest cover more than double since its record low in 1990, according to figures from the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Mares de Costa Rica – MINAE).
The global illegal timber trade is estimated to be worth between US$30 billion and US$100 billion per year, and Latin America is one of its global hubs. An International Police Community (Interpol) operation targeting logging in the region led to the seizure of over million of illegal timber in the first seven months of 2013, most of it coming from Costa Rica and Venezuela.
As well as being a major source for illegal timber, Costa Rica is also a hub for other illegal activities that take advantage of its natural environment, including animal trafficking, and shark finning, which was officially banned in 2012.
Among the destroyed pyrotechnic explosives was firecrackers (triquitraques in Spanish) and dynamite
Photo: CRHoy.com
The Directorate General of Armaments (Dirección General de Armamento – DGA) destroyed this morning 771.153 pieces of fireworks seized between November last year and March this year.
The pyrotechnic explosives were seized by police across the country, either because the owners did not have the respective sales, distribution and/or transport permits or despite being legal gunpowder they did not meet the regulations of Ley 7530 of the Law on Firearms and Explosives.
The destruction this morning is the largest in five years, according to government officials. Among the destroyed material was firecrackers (triquitraques in Spanish), dynamite and flares.
The burning of was done in Moravia, in an area known as Poligono 38 Especial – a special place reserved for this purpose under the watchful eyes of explosives experts and the minister of Security, Mario Zamora and his deputy ministers, Celso Gamboa and Agustin Barquero.
Due to the upcoming year-end festivities, November is a peak sale period for fireworks in Costa Rica. Last year 829 applications were made, of which 772 permits were granted. This year the DGA reports so far 552 applications, approving 313 while the rest are under review.
Fireworks in Costa Rica are common for all types of celebrations, but nothing like Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
On the dark side of, the Children’s Hospital (Hospital Nacional de Niños – HNN) in San José last year saw an increase of 8% of burns over the previous year.
Moving from a sales tax on goods to to a value added tax (IVA in Spanish) on goods and services as proposed by the Ministry of Finance (Ministerio de Hacienda) tabled recently by the government, will cause a sharp increase in the cost of living, so say the economists.
The increase will be a result of an added tax to the ‘canasta basica’ (basic basket, which percentage has yet to be defined and despite assurances by Hacienda that basic foods would be exempt), private education, medical and professional services.
Doctors, dentists, engineers, accountants, lawyers and other professionals would have charge users a 13% tax under the IVA, which of course will drive up the cost of life.
For example, take the cost of say a visit to a doctor or lawyer that charges ¢20.000 colones for a consultation. Under the IVA, adding the 13% tax, it would mean the consumer would have to pay out an additional ¢2.600 that is not applied today.
A hair cut and a bank transaction (withdrawl from a direct deposit for a salaried employee), will all cost more – 13% more. Consumers on a fixed income will be hardest hit, economists in Costa Rica agree.
Experts say it is unlikely that professionals would absorb the cost. Nor to they see professionals lowering fees.
Comparison with sales tax
Value Added Tax avoids the cascade effect of sales tax by taxing only the value added at each stage of production. For this reason, throughout the world, Value Added Tax has been gaining favour over traditional sales taxes. In principle, Value Added Tax applies to all provisions of goods and services. Value Added Tax is assessed and collected on the value of goods or services that have been provided every time there is a transaction (sale/purchase).
Imports and exports
Being a consumption tax, Value Added Tax is usually used as a replacement for sales tax. Ultimately, it taxes the same people and businesses the same amounts of money, despite its internal mechanism being different. There is a significant difference between Value Added Tax and Sales Tax for goods that are imported and exported:
Value Added Tax is charged for a commodity that is exported while sales tax is not
Sales Tax is paid for the full price of the imported commodity, while Value Added Tax is expected to be charged only for value added to this commodity by the importer and the reseller
This means that, without special measures, goods that are imported from one country that does have Value Added Tax to another country that does not have Value Added Tax will be taxed twice. The exporting country will charge Value Added Tax and the importing country will charge sales tax. Vice versa, goods that are imported from a country that does not have Value Added Tax to another country that does have Value Added Tax will result in no sales tax for those goods, and only a fraction of the usual Value Added Tax. There are also significant differences in taxation for goods that are being imported / exported between countries with different Value Added Taxes. Sales tax does not have all those problems – it is charged in the same way for both imported and domestic goods, and it is never charged twice.
To fix this problem of Value Added Tax, nearly all countries that use Value Added Tax use special rules for imported and exported goods:
All imported goods are charged Value Added Tax for their full price when they are sold for the first time
All exported goods are exempted from any Value Added Tax payments
Thousands of owners of vehicle licenses plates confiscated by the Policia de Transito (traffic police) have until November 1 to claim them or lose them for good.
The Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) announced Tuesday that all the unclaimed pairs – almost 10.000 pairs – of metal license plates will be destroyed,.
Carlos Rivas, Cosevi legal director, said that the holding time for confiscated plates has been reduced from one year to six months in order to free up physical space and make room for new confiscations.
“Six months is long enough for an owner to show interest in recovering their plates”, said Rivas.
Rivas explained that many vehicle owners go directly to the registry office to obtain new plates after paying the Cosevi fines, rather than claim the confiscated plates.
Undocumented foreign workers with expired tourist visas in Costa Rica, will have an additional ten months to get their migratory paperwork in order
The Ministry of Interior (Ministerio de Gobernación) said the decision benefits migrant workers in agriculture, construction and domestics (ie. maids in homes).
In a press release, Gobernación explained that to take advantage of the provision, applicants must demonstrate that they maintain continuous employment. The purpose of the extention is allow more time to obtain and submit certifications from their home country, such as a criminal record as well as other requirements.
The new deadline is July 31, 2014.
This means that beginning on August 1 next year, foreigners overstaying their tourist visa, working with expired visa or undocumented, will be fined US$100 per month. Economic sanctions will also be applied against employers of undocumented aliens.
The design of the bridge that will span the Circunvalación will take into account the future expansion of the four lane road to six, according to the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transporte (MOPT).
The MOPT on Monday awarded the contract to the Codocsa company that came in at a big of ¢3.1 billion colones, with a completion date of May 2014.
The bridge will replace the temporary Bailey bridges that the MOPT is currently erecting to re-open the road withing three weeks.
MOPT minister, Pedro Castro, explains that once the Bailey are up and the traffic is moving through the Circunvalación again, the contractor will start the construction of the permanent bridge. Castro confirmed that during the construction phase there will be disruption in traffic flow and that the traffic police will be on the scene to monitor and control traffic flow.
Johnny Araya: “Take this ¢1.000 colones for the casado and another ¢200 for milk.”
Soda vendor: “Don Johnny, in what closet have you been in to think that things cost that?”
Apple CEO Tim Cook displays the new iPad Mini tablet, which is priced starting at $329.
Apple, facing stiffening competition from other tablet makers, unveiled a fourth-generation iPad just seven months after releasing the current version, as well a smaller iPad model. Apple also announced a new iMac and MacBook Pro.
Thinner. Lighter. Faster. That’s what Apple promises in its newest iPad, which also has a new name: the iPad Air.
The Cupertino company rolled out the fifth generation of its market-leading tablet Tuesday. Among its new features, the iPad will weigh 1 pound, down from 1.4 pounds. It’s 20% thinner and 28% lighter than the current fourth-generation iPad.
The iPad Air will have the same 9.7-inch screen as previous iPads and pack the same A7 processing chip that’s in the iPhone 5S. That will make it 72 times faster than the original iPad, according to Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller.
“This is our biggest leap forward ever with a full-size iPad,” Schiller said.
The iPad Air will go on sale in the U.S. November 1 at Apple retail stores in 42 countries and territories: the U.S., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao (Wi-Fi models only), Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
No word yet when the iPad Air will “officially” be available in Costa Rica.
Apple CEO Tim Cook displays the new iPad Mini tablet, which is priced starting at $329.
Prices in the U.S. will start at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi-only model and go up to $629 for a 16GB with 4G LTE connectivity.
Schiller also announced an revamped iPad Mini starting at $399. It will be available later in November in silver or space gray and will pack a speedy A7 processor and the same high-resolution “Retina display” as bigger iPads. The older iPad Mini is still around and will cost $299. And the full-size iPad 2, launched in 2011, is still available for $399.
Apple took another new direction on Tuesday, announcing that the newest version of its Mac operating system, OS X Mavericks, is available now for download and will be free.
Selling Mac software has never been a huge money-maker for Apple, and the price of OS X upgrades had been dropping in the past few years. The move can be seen as a shot at Microsoft, which relies more heavily on revenue from sales of Windows.
New MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops also were rolled out and go on sale immediately. They get the usual incremental updates: better graphics, longer battery life, faster flash storage and next-generation Wi-Fi. Apple also announced that both iWork and iLife, their suites of office and creative software, are now free with the purchase of every new Mac.
And the super-powerful Mac Pro, the desktop computer geared toward high-end graphics and video editing, finally got a price point — $2,999 — and will be released before the end of this year, according to Apple’s Phil Schiller.
The Pro was designed in California and assembled in the U.S. across 20 states. The pieces are probably manufactured out of the country and shipped to the U.S. for the building stage.
Apple’s not the only tablet manufacturer with news this week. Microsoft officially launched its Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets on Tuesday morning, as did Nokia with its own Windows 8 device, .
The Surface 2 starts at $449, while the more powerful Surface Pro 2 will start at $899.
The Lumia 2520 costs $499 and is Nokia’s first full-sized tablet. It’s also Nokia’s first big product rollout since it was announced that Microsoft was going to purchase part of the company.
But as rivals catch up to the once-dominant iPad and the marketplace gets flooded with new tablets, it’s getting harder for competitors to set themselves apart.
“Tablets are a maturing market; there’s not much competitors can do to differentiate at this point,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.
“Replacement sales are growing much, much faster than new sales worldwide,” she added. “You’re competing for customers you already have.”
At Tuesday’s event, Cook took a swipe at competitors with a reference that seemed most aimed at Microsoft’s hybrid Surface tablets.
La Ruta de los Conquistadores is Costa Rica’s premier mountain bike race and one of the most difficult athletic events on the planet.
The world’s original multi-day fat-tire stage race, La Ruta is the “Grandfather” that created and inspired this now-worldwide genre — and still the most loved, feared, and respected.
Inspired by three Spanish Conquistadors, Juan de Cavallón, Perafán de Rivera and Juan Vásquez de Coronado, who in the 1560’s began a 20-year journey through the beautiful and treacherous mountains of Costa Rica, Roman Urbina an elite Costa Rican athlete and adventurer known for staging physical challenges to publicize the plight of the country’s endangered wildlife, decided to retrace their long trek on his mountain bike.
On Thursday, La Ruta 2013 / 21st Edition starts at the Pacific Coast beach town of Jacó (Pacific coast) finishing 100 kilometres away at the Hacienda El Rodeo (across from the Panasonic) in Alajuela.
The starting point for Stage 2 on Friday is at Terramall (Tres Rios, Cartago) finishing in Turrialba (Cartago) some 80 kilometres away. Stage 2 is Saturday, starting at the CATIE in Turrialba and finishing at Playa Bonita, Limón (Caribbean coast) a distance of 120 kilometres.
The total distance to be covered is 300 kilometres over gravel, jeep roads, asphalt and singletrack crossing jungle, active volcanoes, farms, coffee fields, forests and small villages.
The journey takes the riders trough the back end of the Carara nature reserve which is populated by poison dart frogs, scarlet macaws, and many other animals. The highest point in the expedition is the Irazú Volcano, which towers over San José at the eastern edge of the Central Valley and reaches 3,432m (11,259 feet). Irazú and its neighbor, the Turrialba Volcano, border the old capital city and religious centre of Costa Rica, Cartago. After the Turrialba Volcano, the trek continues towards the Atlantic flatlands, traversing some of Costa Rica’s biggest rivers and most dense jungle.
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For more than seven decades, Doña Norma, has been a “chances” fixture in the Mercado Central.
The 80 year old senior said she was never fortunate enough to win, but through the benediction of lottery sales was been able to raise her ten 10 children.
The Hatillo woman told Noticias Repretel, she “thanks God” she was never assaulted and has lived a happy live knowing that her lottery stand helped change many lives.
Traffic accidents, fights and assaults are the main causes of some on average 32 monthly visits to hospital for a facial fracture.
According to health officials, the Hospital Mexico now sees between 6 and 8 new cases a week, while not long ago it was one a week.
Last year the CCSS (Seguro Social) reported 23.000 head and face injuries.
Up to last month there have been 47.725 traffic accidents in Costa Rica. Motorcyclists bear the brunt of the facial injuries in traffic accidents, as helmets protect the head but not necessarily the face.
During the same period poice arrested 4.262 people for assault or involved in fights.
